More than one million Floridians lose power due to Hurricane Milton

More than one million homes and businesses lost power in Florida on Wednesday night, as the brunt of Hurricane Milton crashed into Sarasota and Tampa. 

Hurricane Milton is the second major storm to hit Florida in recent weeks, after Hurricane Helene landed in Florida as a Category 4 hurricane last month. Helene impacted most of the southeastern United States, but hit North Carolina the hardest. 

Poweroutage.us reported that 1.4 million homes and businesses were without power as of 10 p.m. Wednesday, and the number is only expected to rise as Hurricane Milton moves across Florida.

The storm made landfall just after 8:30 p.m. Eastern as a Category 3 hurricane. 

Milton has also resulted in destructive flooding in Tampa because of storm surges and rainfall. Approximately 6 inches of rain has already fallen in Tampa as of 8 p.m. Eastern, and an additional 5 to 8 inches are expected in the next six hours.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, urged residents to stay where they are to ride out the storm, and assured them that search and rescue operations would commence as soon as it is safe.

“As Hurricane Milton makes landfall near Sarasota county, now is the time to shelter in place. First responders are staged and ready to go, as soon as weather conditions allow," DeSantis wrote in a post on X. "Search and rescue efforts will be well underway to save lives before dawn, and they will continue for as long as it takes."

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.